Word creation card set

ABSTRACT

The game consists of a 60 card deck of standard sized playing cards. There are 51 cards with one letter of the English alphabet on the face, six cards with two letters, one with three letters, and two wild cards that can be used as any one letter of the English alphabet. Each card has a numerical value printed on it, which represents the amount of points it is worth during game play. The object of the game is to create word combinations that result in the highest possible numerical score with the cards dealt to the player at the commencement of the game. Game play may end when there are one of the players in a game session has exhausted all of her cards or amassed the highest scoring word combinations. The game is highly customizable, and players may tailor the game&#39;s rules to enhance learning and enjoyment.

REFERENCES CITED U.S. Patent Documents

-   U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,117-   U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,513-   U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,157-   U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,651-   U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,199-   U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,714

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to card games that are meant to serve aneducational and recreational purpose.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The known prior art in this field consists of word creation games usingrules from existing popular card games. The inventions that comprise theprior art also specify rules of game play that are required to befollowed. Our invention has a few general rules, beyond which playersmay agree upon the rules governing game play. Consequently, ourinvention is highly customizable, and may be used to play a variety ofdifferent word creation games. Our invention also has a scoring systemnot found in the prior art. Game scoring is entirely based upon thenumerical scores that players are able to compile during each gamesession. No other apparatus or criteria are used to determine players'scores.

We make reference to the following prior art to show how prior artdiffers from the present invention:

U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,197 to Acuff discloses a word game that is basedupon the organizational principles of the game of poker. Each card hastwo sets of letters, one on top and one on the bottom, along with adesignating mark that indicates the suit of the card (heart, spade,diamond, or club). The game also utilizes dice in order to instructplayers which of the letters of the alphabet on a given card shall beutilized in game play. The game has a fixed rule system. The deckcontains 72 cards.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,656 to Sommer discloses a word game that is basedupon the principles of Scrabble™. The cards contain a letter, and areassigned a suit (heart, spade, diamond, or club). The game has a fixedrule system. The deck consists of 104 cards.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,651 to Papapavlou discloses a word game thatutilizes cards and a game board. The cards provide the players withguidance as to how they may move around the board. The game has a fixedrule system. The deck may consist of up to 108 cards.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,157 discloses a word game that utilizes cards tocreate prespecified word combinations. This game has cards that have oneof the following 5 letters:B, I, N, G, and O. The cards are also givendifferent colors. The object of the game is to combine cards to form theword BINGO, and the score is determined by the color of the cards and towhat extent the player is able to spell BINGO. The game has a fixed rulesystem. The deck contains 52 cards.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,199 to Hahn discloses a word game using cardsrepresenting letters in order to create word combinations. After thecards have been dealt, players attempt to create as many words aspossible with the cards that they have been dealt within a specifiedtime limit. Points are awarded based upon the number of letters in eachword combination. This game has a different card distribution than thepresent invention. For example, there are 6 E's provided, while thereare only one card each of J, K, Q, V, X, and Z. This game also onlycontains cards with single letters, where the present invention hasseveral cards containing two letters and one card containing threeletters. The game has a fixed rule system in place. The deck consists of60 cards.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,714 to Harper discloses a word game utilizing cardsthat follows the organizational principles of Klondike Solitaire. Thedeck consists of 52 cards.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a standard sized deck of playing cards with which avariety of word creation games may be played. The obverse side of a gamecard may display a pattern or uniform color. The converse side containsa letter or letters of the alphabet on two diagonally positioned cornersof the playing card, as well as some sample words that the letter on thecard can be used to create. The invention can be utilized to play anygame that the players agree upon prior to commencing game play. Beyond afew general rules, players are free to agree upon the rules that willdictate game play. Game play for a particular session may end when oneof the players has utilized all of her cards to create the highestscoring combination among all the players in that session.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a sample playing card, showing the obverse andreverse sides.

FIG. 2 is a drawing showing a sample hand of cards after the initialdistribution of cards to each player.

FIG. 3 is a drawing of a group of cards that comprise a completed word.

FIG. 4 is a drawing of a sample hand that displays cards ordered in away that they create completed words.

FIG. 5 is a table that lists the cards, and the exact letter and numbervalues contained on each card.

DESCRIPTION OF A SPECIFIC EMBODIMENT Preferred Rules

Our invention employs the use of a 60 card deck of standard-sizedplaying cards. It is suitable for persons of all ages. It may beutilized as an educational aid by children. It may be utilized as arecreational game by adults. The obverse side of a card may contain auniform color or pattern. The converse side contains a pre-assignedletter or letters of the English alphabet and a pre-assigned numericalvalue in superscript in diagonally positioned corners of the playingcard. A list of words that may be formed using that card's assignedletter is contained in the middle of each card. This list is on the topmiddle and bottom middle portion of the card and presented as a mirrorimage, so that no matter which direction the card is picked up in, thelist will be intelligible to the player.

The following are suggested numbers of cards that may be dealt,determined according to the number of players participating in aparticular game session:

1 to 4 players: 10 cards per deal5 to 6 players: 8 cards per dealThe aforementioned numbers are a preferred number suggested by theinventors. As it has been emphasized, players are free to determinetheir own rules for game play beyond the general rules.

The general rules that may ensure optimal game play are as follows:

-   -   1. The deck is shuffled, and players are dealt a hand of cards.    -   2. Game play commences, and players may dispose of cards and        acquire others in order to create qualified word combinations.    -   3. Game play may end when one player has created qualified word        combinations with all of her cards and has amassed the highest        score for that particular game session.    -   4. Game play may end in a draw if there are no cards left in the        pile or if none of the players participating in the game session        can create any more qualified word combinations.        The minimum length of a qualifying word is two letters. Thus,        single letter words are not allowable in game play. Also,        prefixes, abbreviations, duplicate words, foreign words, and        proper nouns are not allowable word combinations.

Scoring is calculated as follows: At the end of each game session,players look to the scores of the words that have been created withtheir cards. For example, the word SAVE would be worth seven points,since the letter S is worth one point, the letter A is worth one point,the letter V is worth 4 points, and the letter E is worth 1 point.

Beyond the above general rules, there are many embodiments of theinvention, and so the players may agree on any other rules beyond thebasics for a game session. There are a number of different embodimentsfor the invention, and players may choose to follow any agreed uponrules beyond the aforementioned general rules above. The followingembodiments are purely illustrative and serve to highlight some of thepreferred embodiments of the invention. Many embodiments of theinventions exist that may be used and which will still be comprisedwithin its spirit.

Embodiment 1

Up to four players are each dealt ten cards. The remainder of the cardsare placed face down in the middle of the surface upon which the game isbeing played and can be referred to as the pile. The top card from thepile is then placed alongside the pile, and the game play proceeds asfollows:

-   -   1. Pick the exposed card up and then replace with another card        from her hand alongside the pile or    -   2. Draw another card from the pile and replace with a card from        her hand alongside the pile.    -   3. If the player does not wish to utilize the card received, she        may place it back alongside the pile, where it may be utilized        by the next player.    -   4. Players may arrange to have certain stipulations placed upon        victory in the game, such as requiring that the winning player        create at least one five letter word. If all conditions for        victory have been met, the game comes to an end.    -   5. Game play may end when the pile has been exhausted of all        cards. In such a case, players do not need to use all cards in        their hand to create qualified word combinations. The highest        scoring word combinations win the game. Alternatively, a player        may declare that she has the highest scoring combinations among        all players in that game session. In the case of a declaration,        the player must utilize all 10 cards in her hand to create        qualified word combinations

Embodiment 2

Player may lay 5 cards in 5 rows. The rest of the cards are the placedface down and referred to as the pile. Game play proceeds as follows:

-   -   1. The player may then draw cards from the pile in turns and        attempt to create words in the 5 piles of cards. The cards are        added to the rows so that they are arranged vertically.    -   2. Once a card is placed in one of the 5 rows, it may not be        removed.    -   3. The player must then add to that pile's existing cards to        form words.    -   4. Game play may end when all cards in the pile have been        exhausted or

Embodiment 3

Two or more players are dealt cards and begin game play as described inEmbodiment 1. After all players have exhausted their cards, and can notcreate any additional words, one player may challenge another player'sword combinations. Game play proceeds as follows:

-   -   1. The challenging player and the challenged player then        exchange cards.    -   2. Players exchanging cards should also note the word        combinations previously created with the cards being received.    -   3. The challenging player must create a word combination that is        different from and that utilizes at least one more letter than a        combination created by the original player.    -   4. If the challenging player is unable to create a word        combination utilizing more letters, then he or she loses.

Embodiment 4

Two or more players are dealt cards and begin game play as described inEmbodiment 1. After all players have exhausted word creationpossibilities, a player may choose to exchange her cards not used tocreate a word combination with another player. Game play proceeds asfollows:

-   -   1. The cards are exchanged blindly, meaning that neither player        knows which cards he or she is receiving. Players exchange an        equal number of cards, e.g. if a player offers one card for        exchange, she may receive only one card in return.    -   2. After the exchange, the two sets of cards must be revealed        and shown to all other players. The players involved in the        exchange can then use the cards to create word combinations out        of the remaining cards, or add the letters to bolster the score        of existing combinations.

If it so desired, any of the aforementioned games or any other games maybe played with teams of players instead of single players. Game playwill be unchanged except for the opportunity for players within teams toindirectly assist each other during game play, such as playing certaincards to aid the team member or acting together to prevent the otherteam from forming word combinations.

The invention is highly customizable, and has a range of embodimentsthat may be used. The invention has been shown and described inpreferred form only, and by way of example, and many embodiments of theinvention exist which will still be comprised within its spirit. It isunderstood, therefore, that the invention is not limited to any specificform or embodiment insofar as such limitations are included in theappended claims.

1) A game comprised of a) a deck of standard sized playing cards; b)Each card comprising the invention has an assigned numerical value; c)Each card comprising the invention is assigned a letter of the alphabetor a combination of letters of the alphabet; d) Each card comprising theinvention in claim 1 has one or more words printed in the middle of thecard in order to aid players in creating word combinations with thecard; 2) The invention in claim 1 being so constructed and arranged thateach of the players may: a) Receive a prearranged number of cards fromthe deck prior to commencement of each game session; b) Users of theinvention in claim 1 may then attempt to form combinations of wordsutilizing the cards they are dealt; 3) The invention of claim 1,contains: a) Fifty one of the letter cards contain a single letter ofthe English alphabet on their face; b) Six cards contain two letters ofthe English alphabet on their faces; c) One card contains three lettersof the English alphabet on its face; d) Two identified “wild cards” thatmay be used as a substitute for any single letter of the Englishalphabet; e) The invention in claim 1 is highly customizable and notgoverned by a specific rules system; f) Game play for each game sessionmay end when a player has exhausted all cards and has amassed thehighest scoring word combinations.